I crossed a line.

I just bought coupons.  Do you hear me?  I BOUGHT coupons.  I spent $4 plus shipping at a site where a woman (?) charges for her time to clip & sort.  I bought a bunch of whole inserts and a few single coupons.  It felt a little dirty.  And a little saucy and dangerous.  I'll let you know how it works out.

This is why I go to Rite Aid a lot.

I was heading grocery shopping, and my youngest needed Pull Ups to sleep in.  They're normally around $11 a pack.  Now I could have gotten them at the grocery store and paid full price.  I could have just bought them at Rite Aid and used my +UP Rewards that I have saved up.  But with a little more work, I got all this:

I paid with $19 in +UP Rewards and .65 in cash, and got $18 back in +UP Rewards.  So if you count +UP Rewards as cash, I spent $1.65 for Easy Ups, 4 bodywashes, 1 deodorant, 1 computer mouse, 1 toothbrush and 1 box of cold medicine.  How much of this stuff will I keep?  Well, the Easy Ups... the mouse will get donated to Charlie's school, I'll put aside the bodywash and toothpaste for my brother, and the deodorant (and any other bodywash plus most of what I got earlier in the week) will be donated to either the town food pantry or the homeless shelter.  

If you have the time,  you can work out your shopping trip so that you get your needed item cheaply, plus a bunch of extras to pass along to those who need it.  It feels good!  And it's a little addictive, too!

Rite Aid trip 12/26

Today, my friends, I did it right, and I rocked it.  I had 3 transactions, and ended up walking away paying $5.63 in cash and pocketing a $10 +UP Reward after I rolled my other rewards.



Here's what I did:

Transaction #1
2 Gillette Fusion Proglide Power Razors, regularly $12.99, on sale $9.97
- 2x $4 off MC
2 Flexamin bottles, reg. $14.99, on sale B1G1 free
- $5 off MC

-$5/$25 coupon
- $16 in rolled +UP Rewards
----------------------
.99 OOP
earned $12 in +UP Rewards

Transaction #2
1 Dawn Handcare 9.5 oz.  reg. 1.99, on sale .99
-$1 off MC
4x Gillette Deodorants, reg. 4.99, on sale 4.00
-1 b1g1 free MC
-2x $2/1 MC
1 Gillette Clinical Strength deodorant, reg. 9.99, on sale 7.99
- $3 MC
- $3 RC
1 Crest Proshield Whitening, reg. 4.49
-$1 RC
-$.75 MC
1 Old Spice Deodorant, reg. 5.49
1 Old Spice Bodywash, reg. 4.79, on sale 4.00

- FREE WYB Old Spice Deodorant MC

-$5/$25 coupon
- $12 +UP Rewards from transaction #1
----------------------
1.06 OOP
earned $12 in +UP Rewards

Transaction #3
7x Nivea Lip Balms, reg. 2.99, sale 2 each (one of these is filler to get to $20)
-2x $2/2 MC
-b1g1 free MC
1 Nivea Bodywash, women's, reg. 5.99, sale 3.99
-$1 MC
1 Nivea Bodywash, men's, ref. 5.49, sale 3.99
-$1 MC
Advil 50 ct.. 5.99, with WR discount 5.39 (filler we needed at home)
-$1 MC

-$5/$25 coupon
- $12 +UP Rewards from Transaction #2
------------------------
$3.37 OOP
earned $10 +UP Rewards

A really fun chat with Amazon.com customer service.

First, I explain the issue. 

Me:I paid for overnight shipping, via FedEx, and the package didn't arrive. I called FedEx and they said it never left the local sorting location and it'll hopefully arrive tomorrow. Is there anything I can do about the fact that I paid for overnight and it didn't arrive?

Nishant :Hello, my name Nishant. I'll be happy to help you.

Me:Hi Nishant :)

Nishant :You will receive it by tomorrow. Really?  BY tomorrow?  Will FedEx show up at 11:59 tonight?

Me:I will receive it tomorrow, but it was supposed to be delivered today.

Nishant :I'm so sorry about this. I will issue a $10 promo as a delay to you.

Me:okay... You'll issue what as a what to me now?

Nishant :Is there anything else I can do for you today?

Me:So, just to be clear... will I receive a $10 Amazon credit?

Nishant :Yes.

Me:Will this credit appear to me when I log into my account?  I used to do online tech support for AOL, so I know it can be repetitive... but if someone's offering me a $10 credit I'd really like to know how to access it!  I was trying to help Nishant along by just guessing what the heck he or she was talking about.

Nishant :That's a promo. It will apply for future order.

Me:So the next time I order something $10 will magically appear? At this point I'm giggling and reading the conversation aloud to my husband.

Nishant :Not magically, automatically. You have to click on the apply promo option.

Me:And where will I see this apply promo option? Come on Nishant, bring your A game!

Nishant :While placing the order under payment option.

Me:OK, so there is no code or anything that I will need to use when placing an order? Please, Nishant, just give me a code.  Or SOMETHING.  I'm a bit wary of the promo delay fairy.

Nishant :Not at all.

I will send you a email confirmation as well.

Me:Thank you very much, I appreciate that.

Nishant :Is there anything else I can do for you today?

Me:Nope, that's it. Thank you.

Nishant :Thanks for visiting Amazon.com. We hope to see you again soon!

Happy Holiday to you and your family in advance.  Snort.

This is why I like spreadsheets.

I have a google doc spreadsheet that totals up my grocery spending and savings each week.  I like to see all the numbers laid out in front of me- the instant gratification of putting away the groceries and then inputting my totals in the spreadsheet is the kind of thing I live for.

I went shopping to prepare for Christmas dinner today.  We're only having 8 people total, but we'll be serving Christmas breakfast AND dinner since everyone will be staying here the night before.  I went shopping today with specific items in mind, things that aren't a normal purchase for me (sprigs of fresh thyme?  a 16 oz. package of breakfast sausage?!?) so I spent a little over $100, which is way over my normal total.

It felt good to enter that into my handy-dandy spreadsheet and find that I still saved 32% on this oddball trip.  In fact, I've only been keeping this spreadsheet for 2 months now, but I've already saved a total of $363 on groceries!  What a good feeling, to see exactly what my efforts have done for us, and that's groceries alone.

I should start a separate spreadsheet for drugstores- that one would probably blow my mind!